The Devil's Cage

Under the bright light, Pudder’s body was disintegrated, leaving only a long and deep sword mark on the ground.

The criminals further away swiftly retreated after they saw the sword mark on the ground.

They returned to their own hiding places throughout the street again.

Drexton and Colossal Arms didn’t give chase though, not just because the criminals retreated in an orderly manner, but because had they chose to chase after them, they would be heavily surrounded. Other than that, both their hearts were filled with astonishment and were absent of any other thoughts.

“What happened?” Drexton muttered his question.

Colossal Arms was puzzled.

Everything happened too fast, to the point that their brains didn’t even have the time to process the scene.

The honorable chief officer suddenly became a supervillain that hid in the darkest of corners and even set up a series of schemes. However, before the schemes even started… no, it did start yet Kieran restrained Pudder step after step as if he had predicted his every move. Pudder was defeated after that and he fell without any kind of resistance.

“How did you do it?”

Drexton couldn’t hold back his question despite knowing the question it was redundant.

“He thought he was smart enough but he revealed too many flaws,” Kieran answered.

Correct! Too many flaws!

After the first meeting, when Kieran used Emma Eddie as bait, the owner of the Mordin’s sculpture had caught Kieran’s attention.

The peculiar and wicked aura was too obvious for Kieran since he had Dawn Force and Saint Thorn Force.

Pudder was presumptuous enough by trying to force Kieran into despair, thus he allowed the Fire Raven to witness everything that happened within Bunder’s mansion and it allowed Kieran to bring back the imposter.

Unfortunately, Pudder didn’t expect Kieran to take out the imposter that easily, nor did he think about Kieran could relate into more from the appearance of the imposter.

It wasn’t that hard actually.

A being like a demon would always cause one’s mind filled with thoughts.

Drexton also previously mentioned the peculiar situation in Printon City where superheroes couldn’t understand why it would weaken them.

Both the demons and the city were automatically grouped together by Kieran.

Similarly, Kieran also speculated before on whether Pudder and Mr. Ghost were partners in crime.

His speculations didn’t come from his instinct though but with solid proof: it was too easy for Pudder to recruit Mr. Ghost’s men after he died.

Extraordinary individuals had quite the pride themselves, even for the superheroes that served justice, let alone the supervillains that were used to destroying things as their daily routine.

Will these criminals stay quiet when they were arrested?

Even though their leader, Mr. Ghost, had died, it didn’t make sense.

Pudder thought everything as a matter of course, therefore more flaws were exposed before Kieran’s sight.

Of course, there were accidents throughout the course and also mistakes from Pudder.

Although Pudder tried his best at being careful throughout the events, no matter how careful or vigilant he was in pretending to be someone else, there would be flaws and mistakes.

Or rather, the role that Pudder was playing contradicted his character that held contempt for others, which made him instinctively neglect a lot of details as though he had a split personality.

That was the true reason why Pudder failed.

“Lucky.” Kieran thought in his mind silently.

He didn’t know how much of a role [Lucky Card] was playing but since he knew the effects, he wouldn’t mind coming across such foes in future dungeons.

But whenever he thought about Wu, he scowled. Wu felt weird to him and he would try to avoid excessive contact with Wu if possible.

“What’s wrong?” Drexton saw Kieran’s scowling face.

Fist of Justice seemed to have misunderstood the situation as he clenched his fist hard and sized up his surroundings in vigilance; Colossal Arms followed as well.

After the scene back there, Kieran was like a Wiseman that saw through all facades.

“Nothing. That guy is much more vigilant than I thought.”

Kieran was holding back the entire truth.

As for which guy he was referring to?

Kieran didn’t say it out loud, so Drexton and Colossal Arms didn’t question him.

As extraordinary individuals, both of them were used to abiding by the hidden rules amongst them, whether one of their own or someone else’s.

Huu!

Drexton took in a deep breath and heaved a sigh of relief, “Too bad, I always thought Pudder as a decent friend.”

“If he really is who he tried to be, then that would be true. Too bad, everything was an act,” Colossal Arms grunted coldly.

Colossal Arms had no good impressions of such a hypocrite, especially when the scheme involved himself.

Kieran, however, looked at both of them with an odd gaze.

“What’s wrong again?” Drextonfelt slightly uneasy when Kieran stared at him; he touched the back of his neck and asked.

“Who said that I was referring to Pudder? It’s not hard for a person to impersonate another for a time but what about over a decade? I guess in the end, the disguise would eventually take over the person’s true nature. Justice would be tainted with evil and evil would give birth to light… Human nature is the most terrifying thing,” Kieran said slowly.

He sounded very serious and at the same time, he tried to warn himself in his heart to not make the same mistakes as the fake chief officer.

“Not Pudder? Then who is this guy…”

Drexton and Colossal Arms were waiting for an answer.

“Who else in Alkender City that can impersonate others skillfully and never get exposed?”

Kieran didn’t utter the obvious answer but he gave enough hints.

“Thousand-faced Man!”

Drexton and Colossal Arms cried in shock in unison.

Kieran nodded and walked away.

The big problem was solved for now but there were many trivial problems as well.

More importantly, the loot was waiting for him.

Of course, Chief Officer Pudder… or rather, Thousand-faced Man, also left behind an orange glowing item on the spot where he was disintegrated.

Kieran didn’t miss it and he slipped it into his bag when he passed by.

…

As the three of them left, Smorewill Street returned to its normal state.

Other than the long narrow sword mark, nothing changed, or more accurately, there was no change that the naked eyes could see.

A figure was hiding in the shadows, he carefully checked the sky and the roofs of the buildings in the surrounding area, making sure the red raven wasn’t around before he walked out from the shadows and got closer to the sword mark.

The figure squatted down and touched the sword mark.

“So this is also one of your abilities? What are you…”

The voice got gradually quieter and eventually went silent.

The figure then vanished into the shadows just as he appeared.

However, the whole scene fell into the sight of an eye.

[Evil Eye]! The [Evil Eye] from Eye of Chimeras!

It concealed its lingering wicked presence and delivered the footage to Kieran who was in another part of the city.